Neil has been my best friend since preschool!  Yes that's right we met when we were THREE years old.  We were best friends then and have remained so ever since.  The funny thing is we only went to school together in preschool, kindergarten, 1st grade and 3rd grade.  After that I'm sure all who knew us never ever would have suspected we'd remain friends through out our lives.  We even went for a time (I'd say from 4th grade to 6th grade) where we didn't even talk.  Not due to any anger on our parts but simply because we were kids and had other things to do or on our minds.  We didn't even go to the same high school or college, but still remained friends throughout.  This, people, is what friendship is all about.  I'd go into more detail but I'll save that for the autobiography section.

Mike, who I don't believe I've ever called "Mike" because when I was first introduced to him everyone called him "Skinner."  Which just so happens to be his last name but is also a good nick name.  I met Skinner my freshman year in College the second semester he was my RA.  I don't know how exactly everything happened but somehow we figured out that we had the same major (but none of the same classes) from there we worked together on various projects and found that we worked really well together on programming projects utilizing each other's strengths and weaknesses.  I then became an RA (not simply because he was one, but I had always been interested in it) and we worked on the same staff together.  Now, he was a year ahead of me in college but we eventually got to take some classes together and found that to be a damned smart thing to do.  So we tried when ever possible to take all of our programming classes together from there on.  Aside from programming I found him to be quite an intelligent individual, as we frequently had (and still have) various philosophical discussions varying from the meaning of existence to time travel to religion.  Skinner has easily come to be one of my best friends, and if it weren't for Neil he'd likely be my Best Friend.

Chaz, oh what to say about Chaz?  Well, I first met this character playing video games at Oak Park Mall.  He was quite the competitive player, as was I, and we'd go rounds and rounds of playing X-Men vs Street Fighter.  With me was Neil who also played the game and Chaz's best friend Tony (below).  Now it wasn't at that time that Chaz and I became friends.  Being we were both terribly competitive at video games we appreciated each other's abilities - even if deep down it pissed us off that the one could beat the other.  It really wasn't until about April of 2000 that I'd say we actually started hanging out and became friends, this oddly enough was the release of the best fighting video game to date, Mavel vs Capcom 2.  Now of my four best friends this is actually the one I talk to the most, again, not due to any ill will between me and my friends but simply because of the busy lives we all have and it just seems that Chaz and I have the most common schedule and shockingly enough probably the most in common of what to do with free time.  I say this is "shocking" because if any one on the planet knew both myself and Chaz, but didn't know that we were friends they'd NEVER EVER figure us for being friends.  In fact I'd wager to say they'd probably think that if we were in a room together we'd hate each other.  Funny how friendships work huh?!

Oh Trina.  Trina (whose full first name is actually LaTrina) and I have a rather odd history, you see we first met in 7th grade where she was at her cousin's house who lived directly behind my house.  At the time she apparently thought I was cute and told her cousin to tell me so.  At that time we dated for a while (dated.. as much as a 7th grader could date--we talked on the phone a lot is really all that means.)  Neither of us is sure exactly what happened but somehow we stopped dating and talking for about a year.  Where I re-met her in late 8th grade year where I was on the school Track team.  I was at a track meet at Sumner Academy, where apparently she was attending.  We saw each other at the meet and talked a bit.  And then we dated again... which again meant we talked on the phone a lot.  Same as 7th grade we somehow stopped both dating and talking.  Then 3 years later I'm a junior in High School taking the ACT test, on my out from the ACT I'm heading to my car, and my name is called "Adrian?" I turn around and it's Trina!  We exchange numbers to keep in touch.  Same old story, yes, we start dating AGAIN!  But now since we both have cars and a job it's more of true dating, not just talking on the phone.  We dated for about a year into our Senior year where we went to her Junior Prom and my homecoming dance (yes we still have pictures of this).  We stopped dating again sometime mid senior year.  But this time we didn't stop talking.  We remained friends and found out which colleges we were going to, if I remember correctly I think we even looked a Washburn together (where I made the decision that it wasn't for me and she decided it was for her).  Freshmen in college we tried to keep in touch, but being in a new city, with new friends and an extraordinarily busy schedule we just didn't.  4 years later after I've graduated college and gone through some life changes (that is with regard to friends) I'm at a club in Downtown Kansas City with Shane (see below) called "Tootsies."  Tootsies is a lesbian bar (er actually it's generically a gay bar.. but with emphasis on the ladies.)  The club announcer calls out that if you were born in 1978 come to the door to get a door prize.  I go to the door, I notice this girl in front of me that looks really familiar, but I say nothing.  She turns around and gives me the same look a few times before she finally announces that she is indeed who I thought she was.... TRINA!  So there we were both outted at a gay bar to each other!  Is that not the craziest shit you've ever heard of?  Needless to say we didn't start dating again, but we've been great friends ever since and at this point there is no way we're going to "fade away" again.

I always tell people that this must have been God's way of saying "Look, damn it, the two of you are going to be together one way or another."

Tony is Chaz's best friend.  We met pretty much the same way by playing video games.  Tony is less competitive than both Chaz and I.  Actually Neil is also less competitive than we are.  Tony and I didn't actually become friends per se until a little after Chaz and I had.  I mean, I always knew of Tony and he was around but we didn't really talk much.  It was about 2001 (a year after MvC2 came out) that we (Chaz, Neil, Tony, and I) decided that for the first time playing each other wasn't enough and we wanted to take our skills on the road and try to find others that thought they were good at the game and go beat the shit out of them (at the game not in real life [though Chaz might say otherwise ]).  So we got online found and found that there was a HUGE scene for fighting games and tons of other people also looking for competition.  We traveled to Chicago and informed the Chicago people that we'd be arriving.  When we got there we were doing exactly as we thought we'd do, destroying people.  Little did we know that those were not the people we had talked to online.  Once the good people got there we got OWNED (that's game lingo for we were horribly defeated).  Now with this we went home considerably more humbled.  It was at this point that all of our outlook on video games took a big turn.  Right off the bat, Neil and Tony got a little better and tried to improve, but ultimately they were discouraged by the insanity that we saw and learned in Chicago and stopped playing the game seriously, or in Tony's case stopped playing it all together.  Chaz and I, being the ultimate competitive ones ramped up our game playing hell-bent on getting better and eventually going back to Chicago to destroy them.  We didn't go back to Chicago but ran into the Chicago crew at other locations and did much better against them.

Shane, I met in the Summer of 1998. I was taking Physics classes over the summer semester (an idea I plagiarized from Mike.)  Since I was an RA during the School year I was also an RA over the Summer, and Shane worked at the front desk of the Residence Hall I worked in, as well he was one of my residents - lived about 3 doors down the hall.  To make a long story short, I was somewhat attracted to Shane at the time, I awkwardly approached him and he was hella cool about it and informed me that he already had a boyfriend.  We remained good friends from then on, having never dated even after he no longer had a boyfriend.  Today, now that we are both out of college, he lives in Kansas City and we talk about once every 6 months or so.  Everytime we talk we keep saying that we are going to keep in touch, and that we should go out for dinner or something, but both of us are terrible at staying in touch with people and have schedules that just don't mesh.  But this is still one of my better friends and I'm sure will be for some time.  **Hmm.. I need to give him a call.

This is another character.  Ben I also met in College.  He was my next door neighbor when Mike and I were RAs on the same floor.  I really have no idea how we became such good friends but we did.  He too was in the same major as Mike and I, but we didn't do work together, although I did help him a LOT on his assignments.  We too remained friends after college years talking every so often I'd say about once every month or so.  He had two additional years of college to go through and during that time I was able to get him an internship with the Federal Government where I worked as a Contractor.  Then after he graduated and moved to Phoenix only to come back a year later I got him a job with the Contracting Company I worked for.  He quit after about 8 months, due to the false belief that some of our co-workers were out to get him fired.  Even after all that we're still friends, I foresee it being something like that of Shane and I, where we'll talk once a year or something.

Brenda is the one of the few co-workers I would actually consider a "friend."  Brenda was technically my "boss" in that she was an actual Government Employee not a contractor as I was and she was the "customer" in the words of the company.  She was the lead of the project I worked on.  In my four and a half years of working there we found that we actually had a lot in common, we had the same likes, dislikes, and were both ridiculously picky when it came to certain things (like food) as well we both valued money like no other.  In fact I think Brenda is the only person in the world who can eat a meal cheaper than I can.  In addition to this I found that Brenda was another of the few and far-between people I considered intelligent.  I no longer work for Northrop Grumman (the contracting company) but Brenda and I still keep in touch via email and snail mail.

Andrew I've known since at least 1995.  When I was working at K-Mart.  Another long story short, there were flirtations an exchange of numbers and we became friends.  Like many of my other friends today we're still friends but don't talk much due to scheduling and whatnot.  He's another, like Shane, where we keep saying we'll keep in touch but don't.  And keep saying let's go out to dinner or something.  I should call him one of these days too.

This space is for all the others I know who are not specifically listed here.  Really listed above are the friends who I've had some sort of history with or I would actually call upon for a favor if I were in need.  Everyone else are more people that I could or would hang out with on occasion or are my video game peoples. (My people! lol).  So as not to make them feel left out I'll list some names:

Video Gamers: Trebor, Steve, and Tommy.
Co-Workers: Stephen, Sean, Chris, (The Wrong People ;) )

And then there are people who I've completely lost contact with, which I think is a bit of a shame, because they were hella cool when I knew them.  In the event that any of you happen upon this website by all means contact me.  I'd love to hear from you.

From High School:  Aronda Dixon, Kellee Mayes, Lee Penix, and KaTrina Gibbs.  (I also went to College with KaTrina)
From College:  Greg Fairholm, Joe Alley, Jelaine Vacarro, and Robert Owen.